Business Corpus: Roku Stock Jumps On Better-Than-Expected Second QuarterStreaming video platform Roku late Wednesday beat Wall Street's estimates for the second quarter, giving its stock a boost in extended trading. The post Roku Stock Jumps On Better-Than-Expected Second Quarter appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Streaming video platform Roku (ROKU) late Wednesday beat Wall Street's estimates for the second quarter, giving its stock a boost in extended trading.

The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company broke even on sales of $156.8 million in the June quarter. Analysts expected it to lose 15 cents a share on sales of $141.5 million. On a year-over-year basis, revenue rose 57%, driven by advertising sales.

Roku also guided analysts higher for revenue and adjusted profit in the current quarter and full year.

Its shares jumped 8% in after-hours trading on the stock market today. During the regular session, the stock dipped 0.4% to 47.25. Roku went public on Sept. 28 at $14 a share.

"We are raising our full-year 2018 outlook and believe Roku is well-positioned to seize the significant opportunities being created by the transition to streaming," Chief Executive Anthony Wood and Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden said in a letter to shareholders. "Our investments are delivering a better streaming experience for consumers, bigger audiences for content owners, and more effective marketing tools for brands."

Roku expects to generate revenue of $168 million in the third quarter, topping views for $165 million.

For the full year, it forecast earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $17 million. It is looking for 2018 revenue of $720 million. Wall Street was modeling for an adjusted loss of $1.2 million on sales of $698 million.

Roku Adds 1.2 Million New Users

Roku said its active accounts jumped 46% to 22 million users in the June quarter from the same period last year. It added 1.2 million new users from the first quarter.

Users streamed 5.5 billion hours of content on the platform in the second quarter. That compares with 3.5 billion hours in the year-earlier period and 5.1 billion in the first quarter.

Average revenue per user rose 48% year over year to $16.60 in the June quarter. It was $15.07 in the March quarter.

Advertiser-Supported Streaming Video

The company also announced a new way for people to access its free, advertiser-supported streaming video service. On Wednesday it launched its Roku Channel on the web in the U.S. So anyone with an internet-connected PC, smartphone or tablet can watch its on-demand programming. Previously users needed a Roku smart TV or set-top box to access the channel.

Plus, it has added an area dedicated to free programming on its home screen. The "Featured Free" section provides direct links to free content from its own channel, ABC, the CW, CW Seed, Fox, Freeform, Pluto TV, Sony Crackle, Tubi and more. "Featured Free" will be rolled out to users in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

Roku's streaming video platform is a popular way for TV viewers to access content from such services as Netflix (NFLX), Amazon.com (AMZN), Hulu and Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube.

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